Abandoned stadiums around the world

There is no such thing as a universally popular sport, but the excitement of a crowd watching its favorite team win is the same everywhere.

Like the teams they’re built for, stadiums are a great source of pride for cities. Still, razing them to build more modern facilities or abandoning them altogether does happen. Here are five stadiums that need more than a new coat of paint to go back to being what they once were.

1

Alex Box Stadium

Alex Box Stadium was built in 1938 in Baton Rouge for the Louisiana State University baseball team. The WPA funded the stadium, which held 2,500 fans and was the Tigers' home until the 2008 season. Old Alex Box is currently being dismantled, and LSU fans watch the Tigers in New Alex Box, which seats over 10,000.

Wageningse Berg

From 1925 to 1992, Wageningse Berg was the home of the now-defunct Dutch football team FC Wageningen. Wageningse Berg was renovated after some of the stadium was ruined during WWII. It is currently owned by the local municipality and serves as a park, though it may be turned into a multi-purpose complex in the near future. Image by Jascha Hoste

3

McCain Stadium

McCain Stadium, named for McCain foods in 1998, opened in 1898 as the home of Scarborough FC. The team went bankrupt in 2006, after plans to build a bigger stadium were disallowed by the local council. The stadium has since been abandoned and is often vandalized. In 2010, the Scarborough council decided to begin planning the demolition of the stadium. Image by Me677

4

Tiger Stadium

Tiger Stadium was once the home of both the Detroit Tigers and the Detroit Lions. Built in 1913, abandoned in 1999, and demolished in 2008, many parties expressed interest in redeveloping the historic landmark, but none stuck to it. The valuables were sold and building was knocked down. The site has not been redeveloped, and the field still sits on the corner of Michigan and Trumball Avenue. Image by Dave Hogg

5

Sarajevo Olympic Stadiums

Sarajevo was the host of the 1984 Winter Olympics which, according to Olympic.org, was a "trouble-free games" that gave no indication that the Bosnian War in the nineties would destroy so much of the city, including many of the buildings built for the Olympics. This photo shows the still-abandoned bobsled complex. The good news is that a lot of Olympic buildings--like The Zetra complex, site of many of the ice skating competitions--were reopened in the late nineties. Image by martijn.munneke

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